Bowling alley equipment includes a shaker board upon which the bowling pins sit. When the balls and pins fall on this shaker board, they are reprocessed back up into the pin setter equipment for setting the pins for a new bowler. The shaker board is covered with a pit carpet or rug which in turn is often covered with a carpet cover for cleaning lane oil and dirt off the balls and pins. This carpet cover is often laundered weekly. With the advent of reactive resin bowling balls and a heavier use of lane oil to increase scoring, a problem has evolved because the pit carpets are now wearing out much faster. Today, many mechanics in bowling centers are starting to cover their pit carpets with thick sheets of synthetic materials to protect them. The problem with this is that they can no longer use carpet covers because the conventional carpet covers have Velcro for attaching to the pit carpet, and with the synthetic sheet, there is nothing the Velcro can cling to.
The present invention solves this problem by providing apparatus for connecting a conventional carpet cover to the synthetic sheets covering the pit carpet.
The present invention is directed to apparatus for use with a bowling pin setting apparatus having a shaker board, pit rug and a carpet cover having a Velcro hook connecting material secured to the bottom side thereof. This apparatus includes a sheet of plastic material sized to cover the pit rug. A Velcro hook connecting material is secured on the bottom side of the sheet and a Velcro loop connecting material is secured on the top side of the sheet. When the sheet of plastic material is positioned on the pit rug, the hook material secured to the sheet releasably secures the sheet to the pit rug and when the carpet cover is positioned on the sheet the hook material of the carpet cover releasably secures the carpet cover to the loop material secured to the sheet.
In order that the invention may be clearly understood and readily carried into effect, a preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:
The apparatus 10, according to the present invention, is shown in
In use, the invention 10 is installed as shown in
In this manner, the carpet cover may be secured to the synthetic material protecting the pit rug, solving a problem which has been well known in the art.
While the fundamental novel features of the invention have been shown and described, it should be understood that various substitutions, modifications and variations may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Accordingly, all such modifications or variations are included in the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.
This application claims the benefit of a provisional application Ser. No. 60/512,644, filed on Oct. 20, 2003.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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60512644 | Oct 2003 | US |